Conducting research, influencing policy and increasing access to psychedelic-assisted cancer therapy 

People living with advanced cancer often struggle with anxiety, depression, helplessness and other feelings that can impact their quality of life (known as “demoralization syndrome”). Some therapies and drug treatments exist to help people cope with these feelings, but they take time, can be expensive and don’t work for everyone. Small trials suggest that combining therapy with psychedelic medicines, including psilocybin mushrooms, may offer a faster, more effective treatment – but more research is needed to demonstrate the impact of these psychedelic-assisted therapies on people with advanced cancer.

With funding from the Canadian Cancer Society and in partnership with Brain Canada, Dr. Linda Carlson is building a never-before-seen nationwide network of researchers, clinicians, policymakers and people living with advanced cancer. This group will study psychedelic-assisted therapy with the goal of establishing research priorities and creating and delivering training to healthcare professionals and researchers throughout the country. Once that work is complete, the team will work with the Canadian Cancer Trials Group to run a first-of-its-kind nationwide clinical trial of this treatment in people with advanced cancer to inform and influence policy and, if shown effective, make this treatment available across Canada.

This project aims to investigate the positive role psychedelic-assisted therapy can play for people with advanced cancer and help make it possible for everyone to access this type of treatment – giving people faster, more effective options for dealing with demoralization syndrome and improving their quality of life when it’s most needed.